Life must be lonely at NASA. Travis Johnson, a 23-year old researcher at NASA, was busted for soliciting sex from a cop posing as a 13-year old over the Internet. Police officers arrested him on NASA's property and seized computers and peripherals from his home. NASA officials are also going to probe their computers to see if they can find any evidence to help police with the investigation.

McGuire said that Johnson, a graduate of the University of Arizona, was
doing post-graduate research at NASA on the effects of zero gravity on
the muscles of astronauts. Johnson has a research grant through UH, and
used the UH Internet for his e-mail, McGuire said.

What's interesting to note (from anyone that has caught NBC's recent specials on Internet predators) is that Johnson used the most often quoted line from the "Child Predator's Handbook:"

He said this was the first time he had ever talked to somebody who was 13, and look where it got him.

I'm sure that Johnson will meet a few new unwanted "research partners" in jail.

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If I were to pose as a 13 year old girl over the internet, and seduce a guy, is that my fault or his? It is true that he is a 23 year old adult, but age is no measure for maturity and sound judgement (Look at GB, jk!). The method employed, in my opinion, is questionable at best.

I think children these days are given a lot less credit than they deserve. If anything, they are the best out of all of us, at getting what they want. From tantrums to what we want to hear, how many parents have given in to their children. I don't see any tantrums getting promotions and pay increases in the workplace.

Furthermore, considering that "this was the first time he had ever talked to somebody who was 13" (if true, that is), we could conclude that he was most likely a social outcast at that age. Now is that his fault (a hermit), or the fault of other children (the adults today) around him (rejected).

Rather than posing as innocent victims, I think we need to educate our children on the dangers they often expose themselves to, especially on the internet. This is just like "don't run across the street," "look both ways," etc. Don't talk to strangers on the internet.

Seriously, how many adults today fall for virused attachments, phishing scams, free money from Nigeria, and all the other evil things that come in our email? Many of these are run by children!

Are you suggesting that if a 23-year old man talks sexually with what he believes to be a 13-year girl, including sending her nude photos of himself, that she is to blame? Are you kidding me?!?

Because this is a police sting operation, we can assume he wasn't entrapped. Otherwise, the guy's lawyer will get the charges dismissed in 5 minutes, and the police know that.

Look, the problem is that there are a lot of perverts online looking to have sex with underage girls. It is not the case of the girls trying to seduce them. These guys are in chat room looking to lure girls into sexual conversions. They ask the age, find out they are underage, and continue the conversation including sexually explicit talk and sending photos of themselves. This is just plan simply wrong.

There has been lots of coverage of this in the US media lately, and this practice is clearly a really serious problem.

I think you need to gain emphathy for the victims of these crimes, which are young girls and boys. Their situation is real, not mythical, and very serious. These kids are at risk. Maybe think of how you might feel if you were raped/abused when you were 13 (or whatever age), and how that might affect your life. That is what we are talking about here, and what law enforcement are trying to avoid in these types of operations.